To beginners, I made an effort to remove three words from a chapter and it made the world of difference

I know this advice won't be groundbreaking but I thought some beginner friendly advice for writers like myself wouldn't hurt.

I write on Word and whilst it's not the best software it is where I'm comfortable. I have a folder dedicated to 'works in progress' and another for what I'm working on.

I decided to go back and look at some of my older stuff from a few years ago and thought it would be interesting to copy and paste a chapter into a new document, rewrite it with my current experience and then compare.

There were three words repeated over and over that were doing my head in:

Very

Less

More

So I went through the chapter and decided before I changed anything radical I would replace these words with something better. Here's some examples for each word:

'It was looking more and more unlikely that he was going to make it in to work on time' to:

'It seemed incredibly unlikely he would make it to work on time'

'He had never felt less of a man' to:

'He was a shell of his former self'

'The morning light shone through his very thin blinds' to:

'The morning light glared through the paper-thin blinds'

'He noted, however, this car would cost him more despite being in worse shape' to:

'He noted that this car was a higher price than the others despite being in worse condition'

Result? Nothing crazy, but I feel like I've captured the protagonist's emotions, the tone and atmosphere better. The bottom line is that if I have to say something is 'very good' then I'm not doing an adequate job of showing why.

For those who really are beginner and are starting from scratch, feel free to invest in a thesaurus! There's no need to go overboard and make everything an adverb but it is useful to familiarise yourself with words and what they mean. Knowing something isn't just 'very lovely' but ethereal does something for atmosphere that very, less and more simply can't.

I am going to make this short and sweet. I don't pretend to be an expert. But I have put in hundreds and hundreds of hours practicing the craft in Canadian schools and currently in the UK. I see lots of people ask questions about how to write, what advice…

Hi all, ​ I finally completed my third fantasy book after several rewrites and editing stages, and I'm planning to send queries out to agents. All of my current beta readers are somewhat invested in the world and plot, however, so I'd like to get some outside feedback on how…

Hey everyone, ​ Fairly new writer here. Currently, on my first draft, was hoping to get feedback on first impressions and opinions on my idea. ​ I know most first drafts should never see the light of day and should be hidden away in cringe and shame, however, as I…